Improvement in locomotive-engines



uUNrTED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

ROSS VINANS, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

llVIPROVEM ENT LOCOMOTlVE-ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 22,597, dated January ll, 1859.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, ROSS lVINANs, of the city and county of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Construction of Locomotive-Engines, (particularly applicable to those having tubular boilers heated by anthracite or bituminous coal 5) and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l represents a vertical transverse section of the smoke-box and appurtenances of a locomotive-engineconstructed according to the principle of my invention, and Fig. 2 represents a vertical longitudinal section of the same at the line A B of Fig. l.

To maintain a sufficiently active combustion of the fuel in coal-burning locomotives itis necessary to create a strong draft by means of a jet of steam directed up the chimney. By this draft small pieces of coal and cinder are carried from the furnace through the tubes of the boiler into the lower part of the chimneycommonly called the smoke-box, where they tend to accumulate and obstruct the draft of the lower tlues, and the combustion which they frequently undergo injures, by the heat evolved, the steam-pipes, exhaust-pipes, and other adjacent parts of the engine. It is a desideratum, therefore, to remove them, and no means have been found so eifective for that purpose as the force of the current produced by the steam-jet up the chimney. To render the jet available for this purpose and at the same time preserve an equable draft through the upper and the lower tubes of the boiler was a problem of some difculty. To open the boiler-dues directly into the side of thelower section of the chimney or smoke-box, and direct the jet of steam into the section of the chimney above, commonly called the smoke-pipe, whether such upper section was intruded into the lower section or not, in my experience, has not produced an equable draft in the tubes of the boiler. If the smokepipe communicated with the smoke-box at the top of the latter, then the draft through the upper tubes of the boiler was in excess, and that through the lower tubes deficient; and owing to the height of the lower end of the smoke pipe the draft into it would not raise and carry off the heavier cinders and sparks from the bottom of the chimney or smokebox. If the smoke-pipe was intruded at its lower end into the smoke-box to aboutthe level of the middle row of boiler-tubes, then the draft through the tubes would be more equable, but would still be the strongest through the central tubes of the boiler; but in this position the lower end of the smoke-pipe was still too far above the bottom of the smokeboX to take up the heavier portion of the cinders. If the smoke-pipe was intruded into the lower section far enough to bring its lower end into sufficiently near proximity to the bottom of the smoke-box to enable the draft to sweep up and carry off effectively the cinders from the bottom of the smoke-box, then this result was accomplished at the expense of equability in the draft through the tubes of the boiler, that through the upper tubes being deficient, while that through the lower tubes was in excess, and the steam-generating power of the boiler thereby impaired. Vhen, with a View to retain the advantages of the previously-described modes of construction, and to avoid their disadvantages, I terminated the smoke-pipe at the top of the smoke-box, and placed a pipe called the blast-pipe of less diameter than thelowerend of the smokepipe within the smoke-box, and extending from the lower end of the smoke-pipe to near the bottom of the smoke-box, and over the exhaust-nozzle, which directed the steam-jet into this pipe, I found that when the blastpipe was large in diameter there was too great a draft entering its lower end and too little passing through the annular space between its upper end and the lower end of the smoke-pipe to render the draft through the tubes of the boiler equable; andI found that I could only distribute the draft in the most advantageous manner between the upper and the lower tubes of the boiler by making the blast-pipe. in its transverse section one-half of the transverse area of the narrowest part of the uppersection of the chimney; but when I had thus reduced the diameter ofthe blast pipe for the purpose of distributing the draft properly I found that the diameter of its lower end was too small to enable the blast to act upon a sufficiently large area of the bottom the smoke-pipe that the transverse area of the.

latter pipe will be double, or thereabout, that of the former when the blast-pipe and the smoke-pipe, smoke-box, the boiler-tubes, and exhaust-nozzle are arranged relatively to each other, substantially as shown in the drawings. Y

My invention f urther consists of a blast-pipe smaller' in diameter than the said upper section ofthe chimney, with a bell-mouth o'r bon` net o'n its lower end arranged in near proximity to the bottom, on which the cinders and sparks rest, vfor the purpose of increasing the capacity of the pipe for removing sparks from the bottom of the 'chimney without disturbing thek proper proportions between its diameter and that of the chimney.

In the accompanying drawings, b b d cl isthe upper section of the chimney or smoke-pipe,

' with a bell-mouth at its lower end, which is placed over an orifice in the top of the lower section ofthe chimney o o o t?, which, in this instance, is represented with a diaphragm or secondary bottom a a, (which is the subject of another patent granted to lne, and therefore need not be described here,) for the cinders and sparks to lie on.

c c 7L 7L is the blast-equalizing pipe, suspended in the lower section of the chimney or smoke-box, and extending from the lower end of the smoke-pipe to near the bottom, on which the cinders lie. Its lower end has a flaring flange fitted to it to form a bell-mouth to increase the area of its lower orifice, and thereby increase its capacity for taking up sparks; but when the pipe is used for the purpose of equalizing the draft alone the bell-mouth may be dispensed with. m is the exhaust-nozzle, so arranged as to direct the jet up the blast-pipe, this being the mode of introducing the jet into the blast-pipe which I prefer.

Vhat I claim as my invention,l and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is#- l. The blast-equaliz'ing pipe proportioned to the chimney, and arranged substantially as herein set forth.

2. A blast-pipe of less diameter than the smoke-pipe and having a bell-'ino'uth, in co1nbination with an exhaust-nozzle and the bottom.l on which the sparks lie, substantially as herein set forth.`

In testimony whereof I have' hereunto subscribed my name.

ROSS WINAS.

In presence of F. F. IJAMs, P. H. WATSON. 

